The town of Sandwich is coming to terms with a future without its largest employer. The chemical giant Pfizer announced on February 1, 2011, that it would close its research plant here, and 2,400 jobs will go.
This is the largest US pharmaceutical company outside the US, and the factory, where Viagra was developed, has been a familiar landmark on the flat Kent countryside for more than 50 years.
"It will have a huge impact when those buildings disappear from the landscape," mayor Terence Clifford-Amos told the The Times.
Best Preserved Medieval Town
Sandwich is a sleepy town, a cul-de-sac on the Kent coast in southeast England. Stroll around its lanes, however, and it is soon quite clear that this was not always the case. The medieval walls, 14th-century Barbican, the 16th-century Guildhall with a stained glass window showing Queen Elizabeth I visiting, and a large, redundant church that seems far too big for a town with a population of 6,800 (2005) all point to its glorious past. In fact, it describes itself as "one of the best preserved medieval towns in the UK".
Sandwich was a Cinq Port, one of five neighbouring harbour towns created in 1155 to supply ships for the crown to defend this corner of the country from attack, mainly by the French. In return they were granted tax privileges that made them important trading centres. The other towns were Hastings, Rye, Hythe and Dover, all of which have historic hearts. But history always takes back its gifts. Storms and silting have changed the shape of the coast over the centuries. Rye, Hythe, and Sandwich are all now set back from the coast, and at first sight it is not always easy to appreciate that these were major harbours. Sandwich, on the River Stour, is two miles from the sea.
Region of High Unemployment
Nor do these towns have any great commercial prospects. According to government statistics, average wages in the Thanet region, into which Sandwich falls, are £374.20, and unemployment is around 5.8 percent.
Laura Sandys, MP for South Thanet, which includes Sandwich, has made employment a major concern since her election to parliament in May 2010. In The Times she points out that holidaymakers who used to visit the nearby Margate and Broadstairs and Ramsgate, where she lives, now favour cheaper holidays in the Mediterranean.
A Sandwich Good Enough To Eat
Sandwich, however, with a fine cricket pitch and the Royal St George's Golf Club, which is staging the British Open in 2011 for the 14th time since 1894, makes an excellent escape for a day or two. But don't expect a picnic speciality. The fact that the town has the same name as an extremely convenient snack is due to John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718–92), who is generally attributed as being responsible for passing on the name. One story is that he demanded meat between bread slices to keep his strength up at the gaming tables.
Had the town patented the name Sandwich, as Pfizer did with Viagra, it might not be quite so worried about its future.
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